Below are images of the locations that we will be shooting in. 

The main location of our music video is going to be a home and we are fortunate that Louise Weaver, who sings and will be acting in our music video, has allowed us to use her house. Below are images of some of the rooms we will be shooting in.

When watching other music videos from A2 Media, while some are excellent, I have noticed that others aren't so realistic. For instance I watched one where the actors were meant to be having a meal, and rather than film in an actual restaurant, they recreated the setting in a school hall. To avoid this, we contacted a well known restaurant in our area called 'Wing Wah'. As our friend works there, the managed has allowed us to film in his restaurant and in return we will reference the restaurant in our music video credits. Actual filming in a restaurant, rather than recreating a restaurant scene will enable our music video to be more dynamic and realistic.

Below are some images of the restaurant we are going to be filming in:

Using 'Google Maps' I have been able to insert a street view of the restaurant we are able to film.

View Larger Map

Test Shots

This year, I feel we should be more adventurous with our camera shots and a music video is the perfect opportunity for this. There is one shot in particular that is going to be considerably tricky and needs to look powerful as it will be a significant shot. The actual shot is a scene between our two characters where Louise is sitting in her bedroom with her back to the door and Joe is sitting in the hallway with his back to the same door.

Below is a video we created using a test subject to practice the shots and the editing required through I-Movie.

As you saw and read on the video, the shot didn't go how we planned and we will have to think up new solutions when creating the shot. If it comes to it that we don't have a solution we will have to go forward with a different shot.

Casting and Costumes

When looking at casting for our music video, I feel myself and my partner had an unspoken agreement that Joe and Louise would be the actors we would use. This was for many reasons;

- They were the artist who wrote the song so would be able to portray the emotion of the song correctly

- As they were the artists they would be instantly recognisable for the audience

- They also are the right age for our target audience to feel they are able to relate to them. 

As we have decided on our music video being entirely in black and white, we still had to focus carefully on how our characters would be styled. The picture above shows what our characters are going to look like. We have opted for quite formal dress wear as we wanted the narrative to depict the characters getting ready to go out on a 'date'. The clothes they are wearing are black and white only, with no colour as we feel that as the music video is in black and white, you won't as an audience be trying to guess the different colours and it would help with the colour contrasts on the video.

The song 'I See' was an original song by Joe himself and only featured his vocals on the track. As soon as we heard the song we fell in love with it, but thought their was something missing. After much deliberation and discussions, we decided to incorporate female vocals onto the track, which is where Louise comes in. Adding female vocals enables us to create a more fitting story line to the track.

When Louise was first added into the song, the lyrics where the same and after playing it back a couple of times we realised as a female, it didn't quite fit. Joe and Louise have worked on this and changed the verses slightly so they make more sense. 

Story Board

Copyright Permission

If we were creating a music video using a copyrighted song, we would have to secure permission from the artist themselves to enable use to use the track. We feel its a good idea to obtain permission from Joe and Louise to use their song to make it more official.

Below we have created a small contract, as such, asking for permission to use their song. We will ask them to sign it and upload a copy when they have.

The last week myself and my partner Paige Woods have created ourselves a mood board so we can get a clearer idea of the outcome of our music video. Creating a mood board allows us to add or change ideas if we feel the need, although our idea is quite definitive. Above is a video of us explaining our mood board and below are photos to show close up of each section.

FINAL MOOD BOARD

MISE - EN - SCENE

EFFECTS

IDEA

INSPIRATION

CAMERA ANGLES

Target Audience and Social Networking

Genre Selection

As you are aware myself and my partner Paige have already selected a song that we will use to create our music video and this falls into the Indie music genre. So I will now conduct some research into what my target audience will be when creating our music video.

In this day and age, Social Networking is an excellent tool in terms of promotion/feedback and I will exploit this for my own music video. I have uploaded the song we will be using for our Music Video to 'Facebook' which will allow me to receive feedback on my music video. The feedback I will receive will also allow me to understand what target audience I will be aiming for based on their opinions on the video. 

Although my previous target Audience suggested that our video would appeal to both male and female audiences, after uploading the song onto Facebook and allowing people to actually here it, it has become clear that it mainly suits a female audience from the ages of 15 - 20.

Target Audience

I have decided to conduct a Questionnaire to see what our target audience will be for our chosen music genre of Indie. Below is the Questionnaire that I created.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Below are the results from my target audience

Results

* I have tried many different ways for my pie chart to appear of the above document however it wouldn't work so below is a picture of the Male results Pie Chart and then the above document will have the text to go with the picture*

Song 'I See'

Below is a video recording off Joe and Louise performing an original song called 'I See'. Myself and Paige are going to be using this song to create our music video. 

Can you hear my voice? Out here in the cold I gave you all I had to give Now all I have is what you did not take I kept my head so as not to fall again But I failed at least now Your lips they lie but your eyes told the truth Now why can’t I walk away? Now I wish that you could see me I just want you back The simple truth which I long to say Is that I, miss you And though she did not love you At least not the way she was supposed to But now you’re searching for it But you did not find it in me Now I wish that you could see me now And I just want you back The simple truth that I long to say Is that I miss you And these tears, falling from my eyes Won’t keep you from walking But please, think about what you said Now I see you don’t care You don’t care No, you don’t Now I wish that you could see me now I just want you back The simple truth that I longed to say Is that I miss you (x2) Is that I love you Is that I love you…

Our First Music Video Discussion

Above is a discussion that myself and Paige had. We introduced the task and discussed initial ideas that we have gathered from our previous research. Its important to highlight that these ideas aren't for definite. 

The dictionary defines copyright as:

the exclusive right  to make copies,  license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed,audio, video, etc.: works granted such right  by law on orafter January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death.

In simpler terms, when you own the copyright to a piece of work, you literally have the right to produce copies of that work. You also have the right to license the work to others who would like to use it, as without your permission it would copyright infringement. Its basically a form of intellectual property law that protects an original piece of work from being pirated or used without permission. 

Copyright law originated in the United Kingdom from a concept of common law; the Statute of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Rights covered

- The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.

- The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public.

- In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work.

- International conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws.

Music Video Analysis

'POISON AND WINE' - THE CIVIL WARS

Overview of the Song:

You get the impression that the main theme of this song is divisiveness, implying the coming together and need for departure. As an audience you sense you are witness to the silent aftermath of an argument, one that's been building for a long time.

Analysis:

This video has become our main inspiration for our music video. We particularly are interested in the mise-en-scene of this music video as it has a rather antique/old fashioned feel to it set against a modern back drop. We have found the formal attire of the characters have taken our fancy and will consider using this in our own music video. What is also appealing is how the video is neither just performance based or just narrative based and has an excellent balance between the two. The lyrics being song represent the narrative which has been constructed in the video.

The use of camera shots in this video is stunning, one in particular being the tracking of the characters as they walk into the house and each go into separate rooms. One other shot that we found excellent is when the characters are singing the chorus, how its a close up shot of the characters faces, standing relatively close together, as if they are singing to one another. What is important to note is that this is the only time the two characters are in the same frame, juxtaposed to the rest of the clip where they are in separate rooms. I think we should consider using this idea in our video. 

'I WAS BROKEN' - MARCUS FOSTER

Over View of the Song:

This is a stunning loss/breakup song, acknowledging the pain a person may feel and the scars someone will carry afterwards. However its ending is an uplifting crescendo celebrating bravery, strength and courage in the face of this loss and ending in a confidence giving a person the courage to continue with life.

Analysis:

What is particularly appealing about this song is the fact that it has been shot in black and white, which is something myself and my co-worker have considered for our own music video. There is something ethereal and mysterious about black and white and I feel as a break up song, the black and white effect adds to the emotion of the narrative and song. It is important to notice the clothes the actress and singer are wearing. The clothes are either black or white which makes it easier when converting the footage to the black and white effect because as an audience we won't be left guessing at the colour of clothing.

What I also liked about this music video is the experimenting in the editing. The overlap of a piece of footage onto footage of the singer is really interesting and something to be considered. It allows a story to be told while the song is being performed. This music video is very simplistic, not very experimental with camera shots however this adds to the video.

Lip Syncing Activity

*click on the actual slides for the information to appear*

Music Video Inspiration

Music Video Inspiration on Prezi

After researching countless amounts of music videos, myself and Paige Woods have narrowed it down to 3 that particularly appealed to us. This prezi, will briefly discuss the ideas that we will take from each of the videos and incorporate into our own, to make it the best it can possibly be. A new blog post at a later date will analyse the videos in further details. 

To help with my music video research, I think it is necessary to look at what theorists say about music video's. I will be focusing on 3 key theorists, Carol Vernallis, Andrew Goodwin and Steve Archer. I will take into consideration everything they say when creating my own music video. 

Narrative

Carol Vernallis when talking about the narrative depicts how the video is a visual response to the narrative. Meaning, what is happening on screen reflects the choice of lyrics the artist is singing. However she then goes on to say how the narrative may not always be complete and can be partial with the video appearing disjointed and in fragments. The video has something driving it forward but this may not necessarily be the narrative and could be the music or other elements however the video is left uncompleted and can lead to many questions about the narrative that won't always be answered through the video. Finally although the video may have a theme or narrative, it is probably displayed in a montage style, rather than one clear focus.

Editing

 She states that a clear convention of music editing is that the video may disrupt or break many of the rules of continuity editing. The editing may also be bought to the foreground, become visible and not hidden as apposed to the invisible style of continuity editing. Basically the video will have a style of editing running throughout that is distinctive to that video.

Camera Movements and Framing

 Vernallis says that establishing shots are one of the key camera features of a music video and are used frequently throughout as is the same with closeups. The style of framing of the video again is quite distinctive to the video and also the camera may move in time with the lyrics. Extreme shot types are also very common.

Diegesis

In terms of media the diegesis is the world of the music video. Vernallis explains how the diegesis will be revealed quite slowly. The actions in the video won't always be completed and may be disrupted in some way. There will be many repetitions throughout the video and some frames will appear more important than others. 

Andrew Goodwin argues that a female performer is frequently objectified throughout a music video. Through the camerawork and editing, there is a lot of emphasis on the sexualised treatment of the star. The female character is often used for 'display purposes'.

He also states that the visuals on screen, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music. Basically meaning that what is happening on screen, don't always follow the story of the lyrics but gives a great effect. He also says that genres of music have their own style of music videos. He agrees with Vernallis by saying that close up shots are basically a necessity. However interestingly, he goes on to say that the artist/band through their videos often create an iconography which then becomes their star image, something they will get recognised for and is almost a promotion of the artist/band itself. Finally that intertextual references are popular within a music video.





Steve Archers theory argues that their needs to be a a strong and coherent relationship between the narrative and performance in music videos. This is a contrast to Goodwin's theory as he believes there doesn't have to be and instead says that what is happening on screen doesn't necessarily have to match the lyrics. He says that the music video will reflect the genre of music. Archer goes on to say that a music video will cut between a narrative and performance from the artist/band. Finally he says that a choreographed dance might be a part of the performance or something added to the video that will aid visualisation.

Music Video History

Above is a timeline I have created on the brief history of 'Music Video's using the website 'timerime'. I have included dates that highlight the advance in music video's and when monumental music video's were released.

To be able to create a music video, I feel it most useful to fully understand the history of music video's, so I will be able to create a music video to incredibly high standards. 

Dictionary Definition:

'a commercial videotape featuring a performance of a popularsong, often through a stylized dramatization by the performers with lip-synching and special effects'

Modern day music videos are primarily created and used as a marketing device to promote the artist/band and help with record sales. You will notice also in modern times that artists/bands now carefully time the release of their music video which will help their sales of their other projects such as concerts/tours/merchandise releases/album releases ect...

I have started my music video research from around the 1950's but in theory music videos date back further but were then referred to as an 'illustrated song', 'filmed insert', 'promotional film' or a 'film clip'. 

A2 Media Brief

Our task for A2 Media requires us to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following options;

- A website homepage for the band

- A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)

- A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)

The skills and techniques I acquired last year in AS Media will ensure that I will be able to complete this task to the best of my ability. I will also be, along with a group of friends, creating the music for the promo video so the track is original and I don't have to worry about issues involving copyright.